In the late afternoon, Barbara can be found in the sunny rear courtyard of her South Yarra home in Melbourne, enjoying a cup of tea, inspecting the fish pond or pottering among her plants.
“It’s the perfect size to have a bit of greenery around me without being too much to maintain,” says Barb, who downsized to this two-storey, three-bedroom home with her late husband, Gordon, in 1993.
“With our children at university, we decided to look for a city base, somewhere user-friendly for when we got older,” she shares.
The couple enjoyed the house together for many years before recently enlisting architect Anthony Pie and interior designer Amy Spargo of Maine House Interiors to give the place a modern refresh. A lift was added to offer better access to the first-floor bedrooms, and the bathrooms and kitchen were widened for ease of movement.
“The whole home needed a modern update without changing the traditional feel or integrity of its design.”
Barbara, homeowner
The back part of the house was also opened up, with a wall removed and big steel windows and doors added to let the light in. “It’s made the house much more useful, and I use that space all the time,” says Barb.
She and Amy worked closely together, retaining and repurposing much of her existing decor, artworks and soft furnishings. Classic materials of limestone, marble and timber tie in with the home’s 1920s era, while wallpapers and fabrics in shades of soft blue, green and golden yellow reference the couple’s much-loved country home.
“Amy has wonderful, inventive ideas and a great sense of how a house should look and feel,” says Barb. “There was no pressure to buy everything new; my old bits and pieces are still here, as well as new ideas that Amy introduced me to.”
Who lives here?
Barbara, who uses this home as her Melbourne base when she’s not at her country property in the Strathbogie Ranges.
Favourite space in your home?
Barbara: “I use the back area, with the kitchen, dining and sitting room, all the time. I can close it off with the new steel doors, which makes heating and cooling easier.”
How do you like to entertain?
“I have the formal dining room, which can seat the whole family, but usually it’s not very formal – I put things out on the kitchen bench and people help themselves.”
Any surprise inclusions?
“I would never have thought to put a Zip Water tap in, but Amy convinced me I would use it often, and of course I do use it every morning.”
How have you chosen to decorate?
“The main aim was to maintain the integrity of the house and thankfully, a lot of our old pieces suited the style of the home.”
Living
Amy gave the house a new lease on life for homeowner Barbara, who was keen to keep a number of her existing furniture pieces and artworks in the home, serving as a memory of the life she shared with her husband.
Two still-life works by Crispin Akerman that hang in the kitchen are a case in point. “All these old bits and pieces are memories of our life, where we’ve been and what we’ve collected,” she says.
A yellow rug from Cadrys anchors the sitting room, where new and existing furniture mixes with bespoke joinery and soft furnishings. “Yellow is a colour that sparks joy for Barb, so we introduced it through the rug and fabrics,” says Amy.
“It’s a favourite spot to sit and enjoy the natural light that floods in.”
Kitchen
Amy treated the European oak floorboards with a dark walnut Le Parqueteur stain to lend an old-world feel, while marble benchtops from Gladstones Granite & Marble are a classic choice in the kitchen. An aged iron ‘Darlana’ pendant from The Montauk Lighting Co and Hepburn Hardware knobs tie in with steel-framed doors.
“The kitchen is the proper hub of the home, great for entertaining friends and family.”
Amy, interior designer
While classic materials stay true to the home’s original design, Amy introduced a few rustic elements in the kitchen and butler’s pantry for a farmhouse feel. “Barb has a country property that she loves, and we wanted to bring some of that feeling to this city house,” says Amy.
Dining
An informal dining nook off the kitchen features a mahogany table that Barb’s grandmother had made for the couple when they got married, with a Carrara marble top added for practicality. “It’s a real talent of Amy’s – finding new and different ways to reuse things,” says Barb.
The table is paired with bespoke chairs by Maine House Interiors featuring Lewis & Wood ‘Tribal’ fabric, and an existing rug. A floor lamp from Bloomingdales Lighting and antique mirror provide further decoration.
Bedrooms
Barb describes her bedroom as “my little nest”. The space is decorated with her existing bedhead and side table, a lamp from Cromwell and a cushion in Inge Holst fabric.
Thanks to her extensive travels with Gordon, Barb regularly hosts overseas visitors in the guest bedroom. Decorated with a small painting by a street artist in Venice, the calm, blue-toned sanctuary features bedlinen from The Bedspread Shop and a bespoke bedhead in Alhambra fabric (try ‘Polop 04’ from Elliott Clarke Textiles).
The curtains and fringed cushions in Lewis & Wood ‘Doves’ fabric tone with walls painted in Porter’s Paints Newport Blue.
The bedside table and lamp were some of Barb and Gordon’s existing pieces, which have been beautifully repurposed here. “Amy was very perceptive of our wants and needs, and worked with me on the things I wanted to keep,” says Barb.
The wardrobe by Andave Cabinets is fitted with curtains in a Kravet Basic ticking stripe fabric from Elliott Clarke Textiles, which matches the new upholstery on Barb’s existing chair.
Bathrooms
For the stylish ensuite, Amy and Barb chose a Thibaut wallpaper, Rogerseller tapware, bespoke joinery and mirrors, an upholstered stool by Maine House Interiors and lighting from The Montauk Lighting Co. A walk-in shower and wheelchair-friendly basins ensure the space will be accessible later down the track, if needed.
The Iksel wallpaper in the downstairs powder room was inspired by wallpaper Barb spied on a trip to Florence. Her antique dressing table is the other star of the space, with a marble top and splashback turning it into a stunning vanity.
Laundry
Bespoke joinery houses a wine fridge – one of Gordon’s passions – storage and a drying cabinet in the laundry, with hard-wearing benchtops from Gladstones Granite & Marble.
Courtyard
In the courtyard, a table and chairs from Classic With a Twist join light pavers from Eco Outdoor, with a set of woven planters from Ikea to hold Barb’s cyclamens.
Interior design: Maine House Interiors, 0418 521 888, mainehouseinteriors.com
Architect: Anthony Pie Architect, anthonypiearchitect.com
Builder: Anderson Construction Project Management, andersonconstructionpm.com
SOURCE BOOK
This article originally appeared on Home Beautiful and is republished here with permission.
